On November 26, the 11th iCAN International Contest of Innovation and Global Innovation Conference concluded in Beijing. Of the nine teams from Tianjin University’s School of Precision Instrument and Opto-Electronics Engineering who entered the contest, one group won first prize, three groups won second prizes and four groups won third prizes. In addition, Tianjin University won the “Best Organization Award”.

The contest attracted entries from student groups from over 20 countries around the world and more than 600 groups from over 200 domestic universities. Entries were from the fields of intelligent manufacturing, intelligent education, intelligent wearing, intelligent transportation, energy conservation and environmental protection, health surveillance, and intelligent sensing and monitoring. Over 70 entrepreneurs and investors from all around China formed the jury of experts to review all the entries.

Tianjin University’s entry that won a first prize was called “Ultra-Classify: an image classification system based on AI and specialized identification”. This entry was completed by undergraduates Deng Shanliang and Yang Shuhan under the supervisor Chen Xiaodong from the School of Precision Instrument and Opto-Electronics Engineering of Tianjin University. Both the student winners were from the 2015 Engineering Science Experimental class at Tianjin University. The image classification system collects data through a matched Ultra Socket; processes data on AI cloud servers; analyzes the data on the online data platform MultiAI; and performs the function of intelligent classification of materials. The system has been put into manufacturing, improving the efficiency of several enterprises.

Since 2008 TJU has been participating in this contest and has previously organized the finals of the iCAN contest in Tianjin. Currently, the iCAN International Contest is one of the most popular scientific contests among students. By the end of this year, TJU will have taken part in the contest for 10 consecutive years. Students from the School of Precision Instrument and Opto-Electronics Engineering of Tianjin University have won an international second prize, an international third prize, 12 other first prizes, 23 second prizes and 38 third prizes in all, and have been invited to the International Consumer Electronics Show for consecutive 3 years. The society have thought highly of their entries.

Editors: Sun Xiaofang and Ross Colquhoun